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Editorial: Changes in mail delivery a reflection of reality

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U.S. Postal Service letter carrier of 19 years, Michael McDonald, gathers mail to load into his truck before making his delivery run in Atlanta Thursday. The financially struggling U.S. Postal Service wants to stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to deliver packages six days a week under a plan aimed at saving about $2 billion a year.
(Photo by David Goldman / Associated Press)

If the U.S. Postal Service has its way, it will stop delivering letters on Saturdays. It would, however, continue to bring parcels and Express Mail envelopes to residences and businesses.

The move, which may or may not need approval from the Congress, would save an estimated $2 billion annually. That’s not chicken feed, but, given that the post office lost fully $15.9 billion last year, it isn’t nearly enough, either.

The Postal Service is still a quasi-governmental operation. It functions outside the federal budget, but needs congressional approval in setting rates and making structural changes.

However, because of some technicalities about the budget process in Washington, postal officials argue that they can implement changes at the moment without first getting the green light from lawmakers.

We’ll see.

There may come a time – and not too terribly far into the future – when the thought of someone from the Postal Service delivering mail to each and every address in the land on each and every day will be a tale of another time. Few recall the era when the mail was so fundamental a part of daily life that there were actually two deliveries each day. People were writing letters, sending them off, awaiting a reply. There were folks, of course, who were beside themselves when the post office cut out the late-day delivery.

Reality hasn’t been standing still since then.

When was the last time someone sent you a letter? When was the last time you mailed one? Sure, it can still happen from time to time, but it’s awfully infrequent these days.

And there’s the switch to online bill payments, too.

The volume is simply not there. The mail must still go through – just not like it used to back in the day.